The popular video app TikTok is working with the Chinese government to restrict people critical of Beijing from sharing their views on the platform, according to a report by the State Department’s counter-disinformation office.
The Global Engagement Center stated in a report made public last week that “U.S. government information” — a euphemism from intelligence data — revealed that as of late 2020 the Chinese company that owns TikTok, known as ByteDance, kept internal listings of people blocked from all ByteDance platforms. The blocked users include those advocating for independence for ethnic Uyghurs living in the western Xinjiang region of the country.
Under Chinese law, all Chinese companies are required to grant access to their data by authorities, including the Ministry of State Security, the main foreign intelligence service, and the Ministry of Public Security, the national police agency. ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017 and acquired a U.S. company called Musical.ly. The purchase coincided with a six-year campaign by Beijing to build controls within ByteDance through Communist Party “public opinion guidance” mechanisms, the report said.
Two French researchers, Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer, also identified TikTok as a public opinion warfare tool for the Chinese. The two wrote a report for the Institute for Strategic Research, part of the French Ministry for the Armed Forces. Controls over ByteDance products also are directed by the official Cyberspace Administration of China through directives — as many as 100 per day — sent to ByteDance’s Content Quality Center.The issue of the Chinese video app surfaced during the Republican presidential debate last week. Technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy urged Republicans not to oppose the use of TikTok as a way to reach younger voters, drawing a rebuke from former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley for the comment. Ms.
However, opposition to the use of the Chinese application, which allows users to post and share short videos, remains strong.
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